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Rapture Agriculture
Sitemap Rapture Agriculture See also Rapture Economy --- --- --- --- --- Food Production is of the utmost importance (to make Rapture Self-sufficient) Feeding 20000 - 40000 people ... --- --- --- Farmers Market Established 1948 (Sign seen in Farmers Market) : This was soon after the first farms were operating (~1947) to supply Rapture with fresh produce (after many people grew tired of canned food and 'fresh' food that had arrived after a long sea voyage). The first farms looked more like warehouses (actually like the pod factories in 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers') full of hydroponic equipment. Later they would be greatly expanded into specially built tunnels. With inexpensive power and heat from Hephaestus (probably with some special deals in exchange for the Oxygen being produced) the greenhouses could have the plants growing 24 hours a day. Farming specialists in Ryan's surface organization scoured the world for appropriate varieties of crops that grew well in Rapture's environment. Fruit trees take a bit longer to mature, but also can be accelerated by various methods (ADAM ... Imagine the equivalent of Pesticide-Free or Non-Genetically Modified produce happening in Rapture). Niche Farming in Rapture got a significant boost when Ryan discontinued most trade with The Surface in 1952, and many new farming ventures were started. At the same time, much construction equipment and workers were freed up as City construction was slowed. The tunnel boring machines carved out huge underground networks of tunnels for the 'farmland' around Ceres Green. There also were major expansions of the Seafarms in the Shallows north of the City, which harvested kelp to turn into fertilizer for the farms and other products. This was before ADAM agri-technology expanded many food plant yields further. Oxygen farming became an industry as many of the large corporations (including Fontaine's) cast about for additional opportunities. Genetically enhanced plants were developed to improve the Oxygen yield (including algae that could grow in vast vats). The Farmers Market expanded (that new wing you see in the BS2 MP) as Rapture's population grew and more products became available. It also became an important purchasing site for much of Fontaine's smuggled goods, which crossed from his smuggling base near Neptune's Bounty via a clandestine tram tunnel he had built for that purpose. Dwarf Corn (maize) varieties were found to do well and had a high yield of both the grain, which was important as animal feed as well as the stalks that could be used as silage - also for animal feed. The 'Corn on the Cob' stall was always a popular stop in the Farmers Market. Eventually a variety of popcorn varieties were also introduced. Reestablishing a presence with the large farming areas to the east of Arcadia is an important goal for New Rapture, as the food supplies will be needed as the 'saved' population expands, and civilization rebuilds. --- --- --- Mass Agriculture in Rapture (Required for Self-Sufficiency) : Food is one item that the population needed large continuous quantities of -- 20000+20000(?) people eating 3 Square Meals a day, plus whatever you feed to any farm animals to get meat or to fish in a Fish Farm - (Takes many times as many pounds of grain/veggies to produce one pound of meat). Even with a submarine fishing fleet employing hundreds of fishermen - that source is still not enough (and fishing is often seasonal and irregular because of various circumstances). Artificial caverns for Farms - economical - tunnels bored into solid rock formations for the needed volume, heat and light and fresh water from the City utilities. Good locations especially to East of Arcadia, where many farms were eventually located. Other locations, including outside Rapture, expanded the City's capacity. Many remote areas during "the Chaos" built their own farms just to survive. Hydroponic methods mean a much more flexible schedule for 'growing seasons' and use of high yield dwarf varieties. Racks and racks of tray grown plants, lots of mirrored surfaces to distribute artificial light. Grain Silos in Rapture - food storage centers -- My AE Freight Warehouse district had some of these, others were more local to the farms or were stockpiles at companies that used grain as a Raw Material (bakeries and premade food plants). Fly-Bots (similar to the Security units) had been used for 'Crop Dusting' fertilizers and pesticide, and for vermin eradication in the flat dirt farms (not everything grows well using the Hydroponic system). People die pretty quick without food, and Ryan protected and worked to maintain Rapture's food production during the Civil War. His followers did likewise after Ryan was killed. Sofia Lamb managed to grab a chunk of the farmzone around Greenbelt, but got no further when other factions literally blocked the passages. Large numbers of 'the Family' toiled like serfs/slaves to keep her minions fed. Farms of all types (and in all states) would be seen in the MMORPG. No doubt more than a few Player Missions would deal with this all-too-important resource. CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) is required by high intensity farms. So proximity to sources of CO2 were generally needed. Recycling City air (producing Oxygen and absorbing Carbon Dioxide) was a side business, while others used the output of certain industrial processes. A few farms imported garbage/waste to burn as a CO2 source, and many recycled and burned their own farm waste. Think of High Yield crops like potatoes and peanuts which have multiple uses for many other products. Fish Farms inside Rapture using the man-made caverns - Catfish grown much the same way they are farmed today. --- --- --- Food For New Rapture : As long as the Power Holds Out - even if the Fisheries stopped operating, Farming could provide all the needed food. Actually, if the Power fails, there goes the Heat and Air anyway ... It is why a fundamental factor in the formation of New Rapture was Ryan's Loyalists in Hephaestus joining. They had leverage across Rapture which would be important in rebuilding. Another was the Fishermen at Neptunes Bounty joining - much better having the 'Fish' with the 'Chips' (potatoes). Various people, non-Splicers and more stable Splicers, grew/caught their own food (else how did they survive 10 years after food stopped being canned ?) --- --- --- Milk Crates Seen All Over Paupers Drop : Milk isn't something you see shipped by boat across the ocean, because it goes bad quite fast. The presence of so many crates labeled 'Milk' implies that there had been a local supply, and likely more than as just a luxury for rich people. You also saw all those 'Cheeses' for sale (Farmers Market and 'ads' elsewhere) which are usually milk based. So there would have to be Dairy Cows (not diary - tho some proud farmer may have made a recording of Ole Bessy ...) present in sufficient numbers and the feed necessary to keep them producing (which then also means at least some 'veal' could be on the menu in the better restaurants). --- --- --- So You (Fontaine) Are Gonna Smuggle Beef Into Rapture ? RIGHT.... ''' Seriously, how large a freezing compartment do you have in your fishing sub ? (Ones better than the teeny subs seen in-game - at Smugglers Hideout). It takes a week to transport(Smuggle) Contraband from any topside source, so you (the buyer) WILL be getting Freezer Burnt meat anyway. So Beef Smuggling - not so much (not much profit). This would be discounting any 'Beef' grown in Rapture, which could be a viable food possibility (I doubt Ryan would have expected Rapture to have to eat Fish Burgers, Kelp Salami, and some few fruits/vegatables forever.) Rapture grown Beef probably will still be expensive (requiring quantities of grass/grain/etc to feed them is a significant cost - as is time). Fresh chicken (much faster growing with less feed required per pound of edible meat) would be much more common - AS IT IS in our World. --- --- --- '''Franken-Trees : ADAM-improved (accelerated growth) Wood Production ( Mentioned in Arcadia by Dr Langford ) Also a source of Oxygen replenishment (though other smaller plants can be MANY times as efficient CO2->O2 converters) Wood has a multitude of uses (wood resins and other chemicals too) Edibles - Fruit Trees --- --- --- The Meat Problem in Rapture : You might practically only be able to get through Smuggle the better cuts of meat and other high-priced luxury type stuff. For just about anything else this 'smuggled' method is a bit too expensive to feed very many people with meat, no ? ). Rapture WOULD have Farms (plants for Grains - the BULK of foodstuffs) so you can also have farm animals large and small (fed on Grain and Silage). 'Potted meat' is just canned meat, which can be 'lesser cuts', and often stuff a little better than what you grind up to turn into hotdogs/sausage/catfood. It can also be minced/puree'd too. Enter "Beef-E" : With all the vagaries of the game, this product may have originated years after Rapture's founding and possibly was offered after someone started (whenever) to bring beef animals into Rapture for local raising (and made them cheaper - enough to sell real meat products to more people). So it is possibly 'Beef-E' WAS Rapture produced Beef -- with THIS product using the lesser grades of it. (We saw TV dinners also implying some kind of meat and their cliche ground-rubber-band meat is well known). Chickens, rabbits, goats, pigs ... they generally have a higher Meat-to-Feed production ratio than Beef, making them cheaper to produce, and with smaller animals being more manageable. For people sick of seafood, they all would be accepted. "Potted Meat" is often spiced and ground up thoroughly to make less obvious the low grade of meat (and byproducts) used, and can be from just about any animal (and maybe with added fillers like soybean added). Having oxygen generated from plants in Rapture would allow for plenty of vegetation to become animal food (grains grown for humans, which also leaves the rest of the plant for silage). Artificial light for growing would not be terribly hard (with cheap/abundant Geothermal power and heat). Machines and hydroponic methods could be used to reduce labor costs closer to Surface farming levels. BTW - Fishing has its own significant difficulties/costs, and fish farms might be more optimal for much of such food production (again utilizing Rapture produced grain to feed the fish). Grain for carbohydrates(food) is always the 'staple' when less meat protein is available than in normal surface-world urban places (beans, vegetables, fruits to be grown etc ... milk products ...) --- --- --- Soil Regeneration : "Rye Grass" is a nitrogen fixative/fixer (used to fix 'soil' for other crops). This could be used for certain crops which did better with actual 'soil' (rather than hydroponic growing). The Grass can also be used as Feed for farm animals and mulching. Chemical additives (fertilizers) would be used until the supplies were cut off, when locally sustainable organic methods might need to be substituted. So expect alot of 'Rye' Whiskey in Rapture. (the grass isn't the same as used in normal 'Rye', but can still be used to make booze). --- --- --- Riding Horses in the Farms (Ideas are getting Cliche - 'Red Dead Splicers' ... ) : * Are there any horses left ?? ( in degenerated areas they would have eaten all of them...) * But if a Player comes up with a set of proper horse movement bone animations ...... (answer - Vita-Chambers !!! the Holo-Deck of BioShock). * Those outlying communities from Rapture which had cut themselves off when 'The Troubles' started... Might still ... Those farm tunnel networks were quite large/extensive - horses would have been useful - just like golf-carts (same in the 'suburb' communities outside Rapture). * A bit too short a period for 'inbreeding' to occur with these 'cut off' people (so ventures into the 'rural' areas should be more like 'Southern Comfort' rather than 'Deliverance'...) * Player gets to see some normal folk for once (and possibly also provincial weirdness - though its only been about 12 years of isolation ...) --- --- --- Whale Ranching : A "Get Rich Quick" scheme which didn't quite work. ( Related in some 'found' correspondance ...) Wondrous claims (by a 'promoter) were made, but didn't pan out . Some rich retiree investors lost most of their money when the shady/unrealistic venture went bankrupt. (How are 'bankruptcies' handled in Rapture when there are allegedly 'No Laws' -- which was bunk/hack storytelling). This guy named Ahab put me onto this - Its gonna be the next huge industry after ADAM - Its gonna make Millions.... Actually, how many decades ago, (in Popular Science?) they mentioned 'milking whales' -- Yes an actual 'idea' ((but then they promised us 'Hover Cars' way back in the 50's ... didn't they ?)) --- --- --- Soils for Raptures Farms : ''' As for soils, their nutrients commonly need to be replenished, as the plants absorb them and the end-product goes out the city's sewers (recycling potential there -- by Sinclair no doubt). Nitrate fertilizers can be chemically manufactured (Langfords Agricultural School would have information about required Trace Elements...). A balance of chemicals... Alot of the farming in Rapture would be done Hydroponically, but with New Rapture falling back to less complicated methods, that would be supplemented with good ole dirt and sewage waste. An issue with Sewage use for agricultural fertilizer is it becomes a Disease Vector. --- --- --- '''Potatoes Grown In Rapture - IN New Rapture Potato Chips Return : One of the more resilient crops that could grow reasonably well in many bad/poor situations/environments... (Splicers needed all the help they could get with growing anything -- ever see 'Water World' - a reason you see jars of dirt throughout your adventuring in Rapture). Frying oil a little harder to come by (fish oil is pretty yucky for this purpose)... Farm production of vegetable based oils continued. Salty's Chips never quite stopped production even during 'The Chaos' and became a popular trading commodity between some of the City's Factions. Used also to make Potato Batteries to power those commonplace/run-of-the-mill bioluminescent lights. You can actually live off of little more than Potatoes, compared to other foods, and you can also make booze from it. --- --- --- 'EVEplant ': * EVEplants are a source of Eve independent of the lab/Fontaine's/Sinclair's production - a workable source but only for those who can cultivate and protect the plants. * A fairly ordinary bush-like plant with blue orbs (which take a reasonable amount of light/warmth to grow). EVE extraction/refining is a fairly simple process and simply eating the 'orbs' can impart a smaller amount of EVE into a Splicers body. * Splicers regenerate damage much faster when they have EVE in their systems, which makes maintaining a supply important to them (besides the usual powering of Plasmids). But EVE slowly is destroyed in the system or by other actions, so a smart Splicer has a EVE stash left/kept unused. * The EVEplant is a product of an old project to generate EVE using genetically altered plants. * These 'EVEplants' are now a common supply of EVE, and are seen to grow in various parts of Rapture (and even to be cultivated by Splicer factions). * Citizens are commissioned to seize all such plants they find, and to turn them in for an Official City Bounty (EVE IS still used in some of Tenenbaum's Clinic's procedures). * Mini-Game -- EVEPlant farming and the Splicer's barter economy (EVE as a currency). * EVEPlants - seem to be everywhere now in the Ruins (old Plasmids still work as long as you have EVE to power them) * Trading EVE to Splicers is a punishable offense (but alot of that goes on). --- --- --- --- --- . .